“Being a father, we fight every single day to try to find a way, to find a cure because everyday people are living with this disease,” he said.

“Starting back in ’99, they started this children’s Congress and the kids wanted the voice,” Allen added. “They wanted to go into D.C. and let the politicians know, the lawmakers know that they want them to be heard. They want their voices to be spoken up in front of Congress.”

In response to what he hopes to do with his influence as a famous basketball player, Allen said, “First and foremost we want people to understand what diabetes is all about because it is a deadly disease. Kids, adults live with it all around the world and are healthy with it. What we want to accomplish is, we want to make sure that Congress continues to renew these funds that are allocated for the JDRF because this funding is important for these scientists to continue research every single year.”